Shinigami Arcade
by Gorgonfish
Summary: Kazu Ishii thought dying was the end of his journey. He hoped protecting Shizuka-sensei might earn him some goodwill in whatever afterlife might exist on the other side. When a mysterious being from another dimension gives him and five others a second chance at life, he's ecstatic. The only catch is that they have to play this Shinigami's strange game, living and dying without end.
1. Recalled to Life

**Recalled to Life**

She stood above me, bokken held high, poised to end my life.

It would have been nice to live a bit longer. For a long time I drifted through life bored out of my mind, waiting for something spectacular to happen. Maybe it was remnants of my 8th grade syndrome; maybe I didn't know how to enjoy things like other people, who knows? I guess it made sense, I could think up scenarios for hours on end, but the moment a zombie apocalypse begins I die before even getting out of school. But Shizuka-sensei was safe. I accomplished that, at least.

The wooden blade swung down with a force I didn't expect, so quickly the moments before and after death were indistinguishable. I was slumped against a table in the infirmary and then I wasn't. It felt like a minute, though I suppose it could have been an eternity, before the nothingness of not existing trickled away. Like a ripple in water, my surroundings drifted into being. I was sitting on a couch in a room bare of anything except a few other seats and what looked like a giant ping pong ball floating in the center where a coffee table might have once been.

A hollow chuckle to my right made me jump out of my seat ready to run.

"Sit down, kid," said the man who had scared me. He was a stocky guy in a gym outfit with blond hair who I recognized from somewhere. Who was he? Oh, yeah!

"You're Takayama-sensei, right? I had Teshima-sensei, but I've seen you during gym before."

He looked dead. Well, if I was dead he probably was too, but his aura or whatever was sending off dead vibes. Like he'd given up.

"Yeah, that's me, was me. Whatever." He never took his eyes off the white orb in front of us.

"Is this… are we in the afterlife? Where is everyone?"

The lack of other people disturbed me.

"That's the question, huh? Haven't seen anybody, nothing's happened. I thought when I jumped I'd wake up from a bad dream… you know, it'd really suck to come out of a zombie nightmare to find out I'm in the damn matrix."

He killed himself?

"Uh, I died too. I mean, I didn't become one of those things. Do you think that has something to do with it? Why it's just us?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"I'm Kazu Ishii, by the way."

I thought an introduction might break the awkward silence, but it only prolonged it. He sat next to me, but his mind wasn't really there. I didn't blame him.

There wasn't a clock or even a window so I could tell how much time had passed or if time existed here. My mind would go blank for a second or an hour at a time, or at not a time, I guess. Trippy stuff.

I stared at the giant ping pong far past the point where my peripheral vision transitioned through weird colors. It got to the point where I wanted to tear apart the room just to fight the boredom. Then the ping pong hummed.

Small, wiry white lines materialized on the couch opposite the orb from where I was sitting. They grew thicker at a methodically equal pace, slowly connecting to one another. It took a while before I saw what they actually were: bones. On one side of the skull was a small hole the size of a fingernail; it was the last part of the bone to grow.

What came next forced me to turn my head away. I know I probably should have watched, wanting to be a doctor someday, but it was too squeamish. There wasn't a sound, but my mind imagined its own sound effects. Muscle and blood vessels and nerves wrapping around bone. I assumed it would continue until a person was… made. Thinking that felt wrong.

I used the humming as a counter, so when it stopped I glanced back. Slumped against the couch was an older man, probably in his late 40s or early 50s, dressed in a police uniform of some kind of higher ranking. I didn't know much about cops, but it he obviously wasn't a traffic officer.

He lay with glassy eyes pointed toward some unknown spot on the wall behind me. This must have been the same point where I 'woke up' when it was my turn. Damn, no wonder Takayama-sensei acted like a few screws were loose.

The man blinked, jerked into an upward position, and inevitably his eyes fell on me.

"Who… what… where am I?" His voice scratched, like a heavy smoker. Don't know if that was natural, he had a new larynx.

"We don't know," I saw him notice Takayama-sensei, but his eyes trained back to me, "some kind of afterlife? There isn't a way out. I don't even know if there's an 'out' at all."

He had a similar look in his eye to the man next to me. Dead. Not nearly as broken, but close.

"I'm Kazu Ishii. Who are you, sir?"

He hesitated. "Commander Junpei Oshiro." After a heavy pause, "Nice to meet you, Ishii-san."

Keeping him talking was the best plan I could think of, and the best path away from death (or undeath) by boredom.

"Sorry if this is rude to ask, Oshiro-san, but you didn't die from a zombie bite, did you?"

His eyes were stone. He didn't move a muscle, he might not have even been breathing. Then he spoke.

"No, I didn't get bitten."

I scratched the back of my neck nervously.

"I only ask because we, that is Takayama-sensei and I, we both died naturally. Though I guess being murdered by a senpai with a kendo blade isn't natural. It might not even be murder, I asked for it, no wait, she offered it and I accepted. Which do you think it would be?"

Crap. That was weird.

"Assisted… s-suicide." He stared at the guy next to me. "He's your teacher?"

"I had someone else. He's, uh, another gym teacher at Fujimi. And the judo club advisor, I think."

"My daughter was in the aikido club," he realized what he said and didn't say anything for some time. "She… she was so beautiful, her mother too."

Tears trickled down his face slowly at first, falling faster once their path smoothed from the salty liquid. His scratchy voice warped what would have been anguished cries into a close impression of a cat yowl. I thought it best to let him release the pent-up emotions.

Takayama-sensei watched through the entire ordeal and spoke, looking right at Oshiro-san.

"I tried fighting those things with judo," he chuckled, not as hollow now, "got cornered on the roof. Stupid, but I thought jumping might get me out of the nightmare." Tears pooled in his eyes, but I could tell he was restraining himself. "I wanted to see Aomame and Sosuke-kun again. He'd be five months next week."

He calmed himself and both he and Oshiro-san stared at me. Guess it was me next.

"Uh, I was in class when it started. They got over the gates somehow and it became so chaotic. This guy, Okada-kun, we've got dorm rooms across from each other. We talk sometimes, but I don't know if we were friends or not. I, uh, convinced him to help me go get the school nurse in the infirmary. See, I'm in the student aide club at Fujimi. We get assigned to the library, infirmary, front office, places like that—"

"So you spent every afternoon with Marikawa-sensei? Lucky kid."

Takayama's mouth spread into a lecherous grin. I didn't like it, but this beat his comatose version. Maybe acting like his everyday self helped ease the pain.

"Is there something special about Marikawa-sensei," Oshiro-san asked.

"Blonde hair, legs that go on forever, nice ass, but her best assets are up top," he cupped his hands near his chest, "biggest I've seen outside a magazine."

He laughed playfully at my glare.

"So Okada-kun and I go get Shizuka-sensei," I said, ignoring Takayama and Oshiro's waggling eyebrow and smile respectively, "and on the way one of the zombies bit him. I didn't know what that meant, it was so confusing, we were only told there was a violent outbreak on the school grounds. After we reached the infirmary, he kept getting worse and worse. Shizuka-sensei couldn't do anything for him. First time I watched someone die… then he sat up. I probably made too much noise killing him; I had to do it with an IV stand. More of them crashed through, I shielded her from them, and they bit me all over. I told Shizuka-sensei to run... all she did was ask me my name. Three weeks of taking inventory for her, lifting all the heavy equipment, cleaning the infirmary, and she couldn't even remember my name. Then Busujima-senpai ran in and slaughtered all of them with her bokken. She's the one that killed me so I wouldn't become one of them. I owe her for that, but if she'd been a few seconds faster I'd still be alive. Don't know what to feel."

Oshiro-san brushed his hands through his hair and sighed.

"I was in charge of barricading Onbetsu bridge, it was part of a larger mission to protect the western sector of Tokonosu from the murder syndrome, or zombies… it sounds strange calling them that."

"That's the closest thing to what they are though," I said, "it's better than saying 'those things' or some common term. The grammar issues would be horrendous. Sorry, go ahead."

"Our unit was told to protect the bridge. We made it there in the afternoon and soon enough people started flocking to it. There wasn't any structure, HQ just left us on our own. By dark there were these annoying protesters too. They couldn't see the dead rising, or maybe their mind blocked it out, but they were using the situation to blame the government for everything bad to ever happen. People kept trying to get through with injuries and sick family. This mother, she held her daughter and begged us to let her passed. The kid was already gone by then; it took a chunk out of her neck. I.. I shot one of the protesters in the head. Not a zombie, a person. The guilt drove me to," he tapped a finger against the side of his head, "but really I did it to see my family again."

"Did they die," Takayama-sensei asked.

"I'm not sure. The telephones hadn't been working since mid-morning. Kaede was at school. Sachiko would've been at home. What the hell is that?!"

Takayama laughed heartily. "The humming? That means we've got another guest."

A few seconds later white lines hardly the size of dental floss grew next to Oshiro-san, collecting more material like snow piling up on the ground. This time I chose to watch; dead people more than likely couldn't vomit. The skeletal structure filled itself in similar to the way it had before, indicating an adult. Muscle rose up like bread baked with yeast, pushing out to the point blood vessels or nerves were needed, and once those had wound their branching paths across the frame and connected to the heart or spinal cord the muscle would continue around and over it. Skin appeared more quickly, thinner than the other components. Nails sprung from the toes and fingers. Hair grew out like grass from the head. The eyes filled in, revealing black irises.

"Is that what I did before I showed up?"

Takayama and I both gave Oshiro-san a distracted confirmation.

The guy's expression came alive and his head jerked around the room.

"Alice? Gretchen? Wha… who are you people?" He held a hand to his gut, checking for something.

"Junpei Oshiro, police commander."

"Ryouji Takayama, gym teacher."

Playing along with them, I said, "Kazu Ishii, 2nd year high school student."

"Oh, uh, right. Akihito Maresato, I'm a reporter for the Tokonosu Tribune. Where am I?"

Takayama smiled. "The worst afterlife ever, room service not included."

The newcomer's lips twitched into an almost grin. He wasn't as fractured mentally as the other two adults had been.

We talked a bit about how we'd gotten here and how there wasn't a way out. When Oshiro-san finished his story, Maresato-san chuckled darkly.

"I think I remember seeing you when my daughter and I crossed the bridge on our way to my wife's work. By the time we got there, they must have already left. The whole place was locked up and I didn't want to break the glass and risk them showing up."

That piqued my interest. "How would that make the zombies show up?"

"They're blind once they reanimate, but their hearing is enhanced. Not superhuman or anything, but after the chaos settles it's so quiet you can't really do much without attracting at least a few. That's probably what caused, you know, Ishii-kun."

"I suppose that makes sense." I let out a depressed sigh.

"Sorry, uh, where was I? Oh. We made our way back toward the bridge, that'd be the most likely place my wife would head, our house is in that direction. I'm guessing whatever occurred after Oshiro-san's death flooded the streets with zombies… is that what we're calling them? Yeah, well, there were quite a few people running around with weapons fighting them off, but getting torn apart. I thought the best bet would be to find a place to stay the night, knocked on a door a bit too forcefully, and was stabbed with a kitchen knife taped to a mop handle. And now my daughter's out there all by herself."

Maresato-san didn't cry like the others, his eyes radiated anger at some invisible foe.

We had no way of keeping track of time in the bare room so we told stories. The three older men talked about how they met their wives and fun or silly experiences with their children. During one of Maresato-san's tales of his Alice bringing home a stray cat, I began to wonder if my parents knew I died or if they were dead themselves. The relationship between my parents and I had become strained when I went through a chuunibyou phase most of the three years of middle school. They didn't know how to deal with all the weirdness and I lost myself in a world of make believe where not having friends wasn't an issue. So come high school they shipped me off to the best private school with a dorm I passed the entrance exam for.

Takayama-sensei and Maresato-san found it hilarious to bug me about the list of girls I'd liked throughout my life. It wasn't really that long or interesting, but we faced an eternity of conversation or silence, so why not talk? Yuuki Miku had been my next door neighbor and while we never reached 'childhood friend' status, we were friendly toward one another. I had a crush on her throughout kindergarten and elementary school, but then we ended up going to separate middle school and I hardly saw her after that. Girls weren't really a focus for me in middle school and I found it hard to even remember names and faces from that time. It was exciting being in the same high school as Yuuki, but she'd changed so much I hardly recognized her, and she must have decided to forget we'd ever known each other. Takayama-sensei had to bring up Shizuka-sensei and poked fun at the fact I used her first name. I didn't have much of a choice, a couple of days after the start of term she said using her family name all the time made her feel old and she wouldn't respond to anything I said until I called her Shizuka. She was the school nurse though, and ten years older than me, so there wouldn't ever be something there. Besides, she had to be the most gorgeous person on the planet, way out of my league.

We noticed none of us were getting hungry, thirsty, or tired. Conversation dragged on to the point debates about the cause of the zombie outbreak entered alien invasion territory. Maresato-san supported the theory while the rest of us thought it had to be some genetically engineered virus gone awry. The discussion was so deep we didn't notice another body growing on one of the armchairs at the left end of the couches nearest Oshiro-san and I. Dark brown hair had already sprouted from his head, covered quickly by a white baseball cap. A scar ran over the right side of his forehead. The combat boots and bulletproof vest were very interesting. We all sat waiting for him to 'turn on'.

Oshiro-san took the lead on this one, seeing as the guy belonged to some sort of military outfit.

"Hello, son. I'm Commander Junpei Oshiro of the prefectural police. Who might you be?"

The newcomer twisted his head around taking in his new surroundings before responding.

"T-Tajima Usahara, sir. Officer in the prefectural police department, first squadron." Usahara-san added a distracted salute to Oshiro-san.

Much like the others, he slowly brought down his metal walls and shared his experiences with us. He had been with his sniper partner at the Tokonosu Airport clearing the grounds of zombies that had snuck through security checks as sick civilians. Sometime in the afternoon of the second day since the outbreak he'd been bitten and killed himself in an explosion taking as many of them as he could. He told us his life stories and about his superior officer, Rika Minami, who he was quite fond of from the way he talked about her.

I'd never bet money on it, but I'm pretty sure between my arrival and Usahara-san's the same amount of time passed as between him showing up and the white orb humming again.

Everyone watched the formation, though it became awkward when we discovered this one was a girl. I had the decency to keep my eyes on her face. She had to be just a few years older than me, dressed in a traffic officer's uniform. Her brown hair and blue eyes stopped growing and as soon as she snapped aware her hand rubbed her forehead.

"Kohta? Kohta!" Her voice was pleasant even in her despair.

Before any of us responded, the orb hummed again. It continued to get louder and louder until it felt like the entire room was shaking. A brilliant, blinding light emitted from it, vanishing suddenly as it came to reveal an inhumanly tall man with bone white hair dressed in a business suit standing where the ping pong orb was previously stationed.

His features all exuded handsome qualities, but none of them worked together. It was like they were all picked at random from a magazine with no attention to the final product. The 'man's large mouth spread into a shark grin.

"Hello! Sorry to interrupt what would have been a lovely retelling of your death tales, but I'm sure you'd all much rather receive an explanation of your current predicament, yes? Oh," he smiled at the girl sitting across from Usahara-san in the other armchair, "you're dead, human. So are the rest of you. And no, Junpei-kun, this isn't the afterlife. Think of it as a star in the universe that is higher dimensions of existence. How did I know you were going to ask that? This particular alcove of the 23rd plane dabbles in thoughtforms. It's the easiest way to accomplish what I want." He laid down as if on a bed with his arms crossed behind his head, floating on an invisible surface a meter off the ground. "I'm what you'd call an observer. A group of us have taken an interest in the incident that happened on your planet where some of your people turn into grey, bitey things. Ah, Kazu-kun, you called them zombies, yes? All of you died in the sector I was assigned to watch, so I pulled you here. Junpei-kun is getting annoyed that I'm not letting you talk aloud. Go ahead, Commander."

Oshiro-san huffed. "Who are you?"

"Since we're friends, you can call me Shinigami-kun," he giggled.

The color drained from Oshiro-san's face.

"W-What are you going to do to us?"

I sank deeper into the couch much like the others did in their seats.

"Silly, I'm going to send you back to your bodies. The moment you woke up the day the zombie stuff started. You'll remember everything from your previous lives each time."

"Each time," I asked, gulping.

"Oh, yes. I plan on the six of you dying a lot. It's part of the game."

Nobody said anything.

Shinigami-kun levitated into a standing position and clapped his hands together.

"Now let me tell you how this game will play out, yes? For every zombie you kill you get 100 points, for every non-infected human you kill that's 100 points deducted from your score. If someone is bitten, but hasn't changed, you don't gain or lose anything. These points can be redeemed once you've died and returned here. The prizes cost anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 points. Yeah, you'll have to kill quite a lot of zombies, it's well worth it though. Let's go to the scoreboard, shall we?"

He started writing in the air, his fingers swiftly carving lines of light in the form of the Japanese language.

'Tajima Usahara- 5700 pts'

'Asami Nakaoka- 1500 pts'

'Junpei Oshiro- 400 pts'

'Kazu Ishii- 100 pts'

'Akihito Maresato- 0 pts'

'Ryouji Takayama- 0 pts'

"See, Ryouji-kun, I had to put you last because Akihito-kun lived longer than you. Oh, you have a question, Kazu-kun? Yes, I did pick the six of you because you died in ways other than becoming zombies. Of course, there were plenty more people who died of suicide in the sector. Hehe. You really want to know why I picked you specifically? It's a doozy," he pointed a long finger at me, "you unfortunately died to save Shizuka Marikawa. She joined with a group of students and through a series of events they ended up going to her friend Rika Minami's house for the night. Yes, the same Rika Minami that Tajima-san knows. Junpei-kun let Akihito-kun across the bridge, but also helped the surge of undead in that area. Akihito-kun's daughter Alice was rescued by the group Shizuka belonged to, but they were forced to leave because there were too many zombies around. Many things happened and because of an EMP blast they ended up at the mall Nakaoka-chan was using to shelter survivors. She fell in love with a boy from that group, Kohta Hirano, who as it happens, is a student of?"

"Me…" Takayama-sensei whispered.

"Congratulations!" Shinigami-kun clapped his hands again. "Oh, you and Kazu-kun also are at the same school. The connections help bind the game."

This was too insane, but I couldn't help smiling. "Shizuka-sensei survives?"

The girl who appeared earlier spoke up, "yes, um, Ishii-kun? She was perfectly fine when I saw her. Do you know Kohta-kun?"

I racked my brain. "Does he have square-framed glasses, kind of on the short side? I think he's in my class."

"Yes," she smiled, "that's Kohta-kun."

Shinigami-kun coughed.

"Back to me, please. Each of you will receive a gift to spice up this first round."

He snapped his fingers and six boxes solidified in a circle around his waist. A picture adorned the top of each, showing a representation of what lay inside. He tapped them with a finger as he named them off. "Scarf, tennis racket, flashlight, spoon, raincoat, handgun. They've all got a magical property to them. Choosing by the leaderboard seems fair. Tajima-kun, you're first."

Usahara-san snatched the box holding the gun in a flash.

"Next, Asami-chan."

Nakaoka-san contemplated for a moment, then plucked up the flashlight.

"Junpei-kun."

Oshiro-san grabbed the tennis racket.

"Hehe, plan on using that offensively? Kazu-kun, go ahead."

I went through the options in my head. They had some kind of magic property. Out of the spoon, scarf, and raincoat which would benefit the most? In fairytales, cloaks usually come with shapeshifting or invisibility. I took the raincoat.

"Hmm. Akihito-kun."

Maresato-san chose the scarf.

"That leaves you with the spoon, Ryouji-kun," Shinigami-kun cheerily replied.

Takayama-sensei fiddled with his box while asking, "What are we supposed to do? Just kill those things over and over?"

"No, silly. Okay. Yeah, you do slay them, but think of this as a do over. You all get to do things differently than last time. Make better choices. Take fate into your own hands or something inspirational like that. This isn't a trick. I'm not going to torture you or make your life harder. Like I said, I'm an observer. All I'm here to do is watch what you humans will do with a second chance and a third and a fourth. Well, that's my speech. Time for you to go back. So long, my friends, until we meet again."

Nakaoka-san waved a hand in my direction trying to get my attention, but before she spoke everything fell apart like the room and everything in it was made of water and finally decided to burst apart.

I didn't even realize my eyes were closed until they jerked open. I lay breathing heavily, getting my bearings straight. Objects in the room were blurred splotches. Out of habit, I reached my left hand toward my nightstand, grabbed my glasses, and put them on my head. In an instant, I knew where I was: my dorm room at Fujimi.

A deep sigh left my lungs. That had to be the weirdest dream I'd ever had. I sat on my bed just relaxing for a while as the morning sun barely peeked through the window. The birds chirped louder than normal. No, wait. That was my cellphone. I unplugged it from the charger and answered with a mumbled 'hello'.

"Is this Ishii-kun? Kazu Ishii," a feminine voice asked from the other end.

I rubbed my eyes with the hand that wasn't holding the phone. When I had cleared them, I noticed a jacket hanging by its hood on the back of my desk chair.

"Hello? Ishii-kun?"

"Oh, uh, sorry. I'm waking up from a bad dream. Who's this?"

Since when did I have a yellow jacket? And why was it so shiny? It almost looked like a…

"We've never properly been introduced, Ishii-kun, but my name is Asami Nakaoka and I have a favor to ask you. A few, actually."

…raincoat.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hope you liked my first attempt at a Highschool of the Dead story. I love the HOTD characters and if there was a Kazu Ishii fanclub, I'd probably be the president of it. There are a bunch of fanfics I've seen where Kyoko, Misuzu, or Toshimi are brought into the group. There are a lot less that include Morita or Imamura. I've read two that keep Ishii alive: one he has maybe one or two lines of mention and the other he's put in an ambulance and never seen again. This entire story is mostly a celebration of the minor characters while mining the manga for story potential. Instead of one character going back in time for a chance to change the future, we have six so nothing will be exactly the same as before. There will be a lot more action and violence (and some romance) in the chapters from now on, this first was just to set things up.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I'll try to answer in non-spoiler ways. And feel free to leave a review if you feel like it, I love to hear your thoughts and any advice you want to share with me.


	2. The Crucible

**The Crucible**

I closed the sliding door to the shop club room, not bothering to do so quietly. The raincoat I wore over jeans and a black t-shirt with a One Piece logo distorted the air around me. It had taken only a few minutes to figure out the ability it held. Whenever I pulled the hood over my head, myself and anything touching me that I wanted to take with me shifted into a parallel dimension. Maybe. The exact mechanics were something I still had to work out, but if the normal world could be summarized as 1 I moved to 1.5. I became undetectable to all five major senses.

Gripping the titanium crowbar I just had just swiped from the classroom, I glanced at the to-do list Nakaoka-san and I had brainstormed over the phone after she'd told me what she knew of the group of survivors from Fujimi. Apparently, it consisted of Shizuka Marikawa, Kohta Hirano, Saya Takagi, Rei Miyamoto, Takashi Komuro, Maresato-san's daughter Alice, and Saeko Busujima.

Nakaoka-san made a good point that it wouldn't do any good to warn people; they would only believe once the dead started swarming and then they'd go into a panic anyways. The best option was to gather supplies, stay in contact, and decide on a meeting place. I hadn't expected her to be so levelheaded for someone so young.

I pulled the hood down and back up so the crowbar was enveloped into my dimension.

Right. Finding a means of transportation was the first item on the list. Something big enough to store a large amount of supplies. The only vehicles that fit the criteria were the two mini-buses in the school parking lot. Simple plan, really: pack one of them with tons of food, medicine, and tools while the other carries the group. Getting to that point felt like an endless quest. The keys to both buses were in the faculty room which was locked outside school hours. I could break in fairly easily with the crowbar, but it would push people to look for anything missing and create conflict I didn't need. The front gate had to be unlocked with a key from the security guard so I might as well get the faculty room key there while I'm at it. And the biggest problem, driving. Hopefully a bus operated similar to arcade driving games, I was kind of good at those.

I arrived at the large, open room with the front doors and numerous shoe lockers. The security guard's post was a room off to the side; his door was open and I could see him watching the morning news. The space inside was miniscule; his office chair hardly had room to back up a foot. What to do?

I tried slamming my crowbar down on the metal lockers, but it had the raincoat's aura so sound wasn't made from it. A new theory bubbled up in my mind. Yeah, that might work.

Charging at the front doors, I swung the metal tool hard against the glass panel taking out a generous portion of the top half. The breaking glass made no noise, but when it broke on the stone pavement outside it did. I hefted the crowbar above my head and destroyed the rest of the panel.

By this time, the guard came running over to check things out. I slid out of his way and jogged to his little outpost.

The security room might have been small, but Fujimi went all out in equipping it. A dozen small screens mounted the wall with security camera feeds from both inside and outside the school building. Four high-end walkie-talkies lay on the desk, and resting on a hook above the desk was a metal ring with dozens of keys. I grabbed the key ring, hesitated for a moment, and then clipped the four hand-held radios to the waist of my jeans. I did the trick to bring them to my dimension and ran back to the faculty room.

Five minutes wasted on finding the right key, but I finally had the keys to one of the mini-buses, a big plastic #2 keychain hanging from it. Running back through the corridors and down the stairs felt amazing when no one could possibly catch me.

When I got back to the front doors the security guard was standing by his office door deep in conversation with Satoshi Arisawa, the second year chemistry teacher. I stopped for a moment to listen.

"Why did I have to come down here again," Arisawa-sensei yawned out.

"It had to be a student. Must've been using a slingshot or something, right? Draw me out front so they can steal my keys and all the radios. You're in charge of curfew this week along with Hayashi-sensei, so the both of you will need to do room checks."

"Damn kids." Arisawa-sensei scratched at his chin, the fine hairs of a beard making a bristling noise.

He trudged off toward the dorms and the security guard went back to analyze the camera feeds.

I slipped through the broken door. Sunlight fell in blotches against the pavement where it wasn't blocked by trees. The thick, humid summer air felt invigorating.

Luckily, the key to the school's gate was the largest key on the ring and the first one I tried. The hinges squeaked as they opened.

I made a short walk to the mini-buses. The parking lot was for teachers commuting to school for the day, which included everyone but the teachers on curfew duty and Shizuka-sensei, who stayed at the school during the week in case of medical emergencies. It had a small entrance in the back leading up to it, though it was too narrow for the bus to make the turns.

The bus closer to the school had a #1 decal stuck to the side door. Mine would be the vehicle behind it. My hands shook as I pushed the key into its slot. This… I had to do this. Saving everyone wasn't an option, not at the moment, but I had the power to save some. It didn't come down to not having a choice; this was the only path I'd ever take.

I climbed up into the bus, shut the door behind me, placed the crowbar on the dashboard, and sat down in the driver's seat. An email went to Nakaoka-san from my phone.

_Have bus. Also 4 radios, Motorola 22-channels. 35 mile range. Where should I go?_

While I waited for her reply I pulled my hood down and fanned the raincoat away from my clothes. The humidity already had sweat beading under my arms and along my sides.

_K go to Kyasshu. Its near Fujimi, has lots of stuff. Channel 13. Good luck! (^ ~ ^)_

I smiled. That was the first time a girl had ever emailed me.

Rummaging in the glove department produced a street map of Tokonosu, didn't need it right now, but it might come in handy later. I stored two of the radios back in with the map and tugged the yellow raincoat's hood up, concentrating on bringing the bus with me. The warped atmosphere swallowed the bus. A grin spread across my face. Nothing could touch me.

I put the key in the ignition, felt the engine hum to life, and steered the bus toward the gate at a snail's pace. Once entirely clear, I jumped out and locked the gate. The bus stayed in my dimension even though I wasn't directly touching it, which probably meant it wouldn't be detectable again until I came back to the normal world.

Fujimi sat at the top of a large hill on the outskirts of the city. The road leading to it was used mostly by cargo trucks delivering goods to convenient stores. I stayed in the correct lane for the direction I traveled in, eventually getting the hang of slowing down on the turns. By no means was it smooth, but fifteen minutes later I'd made it to the widened city streets.

I noted the Sevenson's gas station as a potential spot to get gasoline. Kyasshu, the store Nakaoka-san suggested, was three blocks down. I did my best to pull the bus to a smooth stop, but my foot pumped the brakes too hard, jerking it to a standstill right in front of the building. At least nobody saw it.

Kyasshu was a pretty big store, built sort of like a warehouse with its concrete floors and bulk goods. It sold an assortment of items from office supplies to luggage to everyday tools and anything else they could fit in the store. The best part: it opened early when all the other stores of its kind didn't crack the doors until 9am.

As I jumped off the bus's steps, I went over the plan. It would be a quick in and out operation if I stuffed items into bags and made them invisible, but then the bus would be seen. On the other hand, sneaking items out of a store would take more stealth, but once they were on the bus they'd disappear. I shrugged my shoulders. Might as well practice being sneaky.

A few employees stood at random spots in the store putting out stock; the cashiers huddled together near the restrooms talking. They glanced over when the automatic sliding doors opened, but saw no one and soon went back to their conversation.

My first stop was the luggage department. Both sides of the aisle had various brands on display. I spotted the duffel bags, pulled out my 'shopping' list, and did some mental packing. Right. I clutched the straps of a duffel bag and dragged it to the assorted supplies section. Whatever even had a slight chance of being useful went in: six rolls of duct tape, three spools of rope, two medium sized boxes of black trash bags, ten packs of each size of battery, a dozen head-mounted flashlights, a few packs of pencils and pens, and as many spiral notebooks I could get to fit inside before zipping it up.

The bag wasn't that noticeable when I hid it in the display with the others.

Another came with me to garden section. I had no clue what plants grew in what seasons so I dumped every seed packet I saw in the duffel bag. Dropped it off with the other one.

Futon bedding came in boxes, screwing up my one-and-done exit strategy. So the third and fourth bags ended up holding a dozen sleeping bags between the two of them.

The fifth duffel bag barely lifted off the ground from all the tools in it, but better to have the tools now than to wander around looking for them later.

For the sixth one, I just grabbed bed sheet packages if sleeping bags weren't enough.

Last items I got were two large blue cooler chests and two five-gallon gas canisters.

My exit plan changed a bit. In the rush, I'd forgotten stores like this have alarms at the doors to deter shoplifting. Something drastic must be done. Something I'd thought about doing since I was six years old.

The employees didn't even look to see if there actually was a fire, once I pulled the alarm they all ran out of the building like Olympic track athletes. I kind of wanted to watch if any of them smacked against the bus outside, but no time, you know?

When the monotonous task of pulling and pushing my stash into the back of the bus was done, the fire department parked and men in fire retardant suits walked into the store.

I eased the brakes much better the second time, resting next to Fujimi's gate in a more comfortable fashion. After unlocking and then locking it again when the bus was through, I stowed it back where it'd originally been behind the other bus.

With a click, the bus's sliding door locked. I didn't need somebody going in and taking all my stuff. Plastic crinkled as I forced a plastic bag into my pocket, rested the crowbar over my shoulder, and tuned one of the radios to channel 13.

_"Nakaoka-san? This is Ishii, I'm done."_ I hopped through the broken door and smiled at the group of students distractedly putting on their indoors shoes while gossiping about what'd happened with the glass.

The radio chirped. _"Ah, Ishii-kun! I thought you might have died in a fiery car crash. I'm glad you're okay! I think it's starting here; our station's been getting calls all morning about violent people in the street. When did it start there last time?"_

I suppressed a laugh at her wild imagination. _"10:30, I think? Sometime right after that. Two and a half hours until Z-day here. This whole thing is kind of freaky though, isn't it?"_

She didn't respond. I leaned on the wall near the security office and eavesdropped on the conversation inside.

"Are you sure it's him, Satoshi-san? Was there anything incriminating in his room?" That sharp, stressed voice had to be Hayashi-sensei.

"Kyoko, he's the only one missing unless you think Takayama did it. Shinichi Kushiro had a sling shot in his room, but it's still in the plastic casing from when he bought it. We both have a free period from ten till lunch, maybe he'll go hide in the dorms during class and we can smoke him out."

"You could smoke him out all on your own with how many cigarettes you go through in a day. It's bad for your health. Do you want to die tomorrow?" Wow. She really sounded like she cared.

Arisawa-sensei's voice softened. "Bad analogy on my part. You can join me or go snooping around the grounds with Teshima. How many times has he asked you out this month, Kyoko?"

"He does it because he thinks I'm single." Now her voice was dripping annoyance.

"Aren't you?"

"Only because _someone_ can't take a hint," she huffed.

Yeah, that was my cue to leave.

I spent two hours leisurely strolling through the school. When the time came I needed to do everything exactly the same leading up to the point Busujima-senpai arrived at the infirmary, minus the whole getting bitten and dying part. First time, Komuro had interrupted class to get Miyamoto and whispered something about teachers being murdered at the front gate. They'd survived by themselves before, so I wasn't worried much. Takagi and Hirano would come with me to the infirmary right before the stampede. Speaking of infirmary…

I closed the sliding door behind me and glanced at the clock above the window on the far wall. Thirty minutes. Definitely wasted too much time. Shizuka-sensei sat at her desk asleep, breathing quietly except for the occasion soft snore. So cute. No, stop, focus.

First aid kit, bandages, gauze, and pretty much everything that could fit and looked important went into the trash bag I'd brought from the bus. Tying the straps, I tucked it under one of the cots.

Last time, sensei was awake when I ran here during the mad rush. No point in disturbing her sleep prematurely.

An ominous feeling swept through me as I walked to class 2-B. Komuro, Miyamoto, and Igou were leaving when I got there, so I jumped into the room before they could close the door. Only a few minutes left.

That gut-wrenching announcement over the intercom boomed out of a speaker in the front of the room. Near the end of it when things got nasty, Hirano crawled from his seat to the door which caught Takagi's eye. She followed quickly after him.

Takagi crept behind the crouching boy about to speak.

I set my crowbar on the floor and became visible. Takagi's hand felt silk smooth in mine as I tugged it to Hirano's and formed something resembling a three-way handshake. The three of us entered the other dimension. I let go of their hands and grabbed my crowbar back up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing touching me?" Takagi planted her hands on her hips in an intimidating posture. Well, it would have been intimidating if I didn't have close to a foot of height over her 5' frame.

For the first time, I had power. "Come with me if you want to live," I said in the coolest voice I could muster.

"Y-you did not just quote Terminator," she hesitated, "since when do you even speak… what's your name again?"

Those words.

"My name is Kazu Ishii. We've been in the same class two years in a row, Takagi-san. Now follow me, the both of you. There's going to be a stampede in a second."

I walked quickly toward the shop club's room. Hirano caught up beside me and I heard Takagi sigh before telling me to 'hold up'.

We sat in the room that smelled like sawdust for a few minutes not saying a word. I thought they might need a break to process all of this like I had. Takagi's face softened as her mind went whirring; she was actually pretty when her eyes weren't trying to burn holes in you. Hirano appeared hesitant like he didn't know if he was allowed to speak.

"Um, Ishii-san? What's this," Hirano asked, raising his arm and pointing to the distorted aura.

"Yeah, when I held your hands I pulled you into an alternate dimension. No one can perceive us by any of the five senses."

Takagi scoffed. "He might believe some otaku crap like that, but I won't. What's your game?"

Chaotic noise erupted outside the club room. I waited for their attention to come back to me.

"My game? I'm a time-traveler from the future. About twenty minutes in the future, to be precise. Honestly, I saved you because you're integral to preserving part of the timeline. I saved Hirano-kun as a favor to a friend. No ulterior motives, it's not like we've even spoken before now."

"Friend? I don't have any friends." Hirano poked his fingers together dejectedly.

"Don't worry, from what I've heard you have some pretty good friends. But we really need to get going soon. The facts are we're basically invisible, there are zombies chomping on anyone trying to escape by the first floor. People who get away become zombies somewhere else. It spreads. The two of you find a weapon."

"Why would we need weapons if you said they can't see us," Takagi asked. Pretty sure it sounded condescending.

"Zombies can't see, they're blind, but they've got super hearing skills. Hence the being in my raincoat realm. And the weapons are to push them out of the way, unless you want to taint your dainty hands," I retorted.

She scowled. "Your hideous raincoat is what's making us invisible? I thought you just had horrible taste in clothes."

"Get your damn weapon so we can go," I snapped. She pissed me off, a lot.

I watched Hirano's eyes wander the room and settle on a nail gun. It shifted from one hand to the other like something wasn't right about it. I guess he thought taping a strip of wood to the side fixed something. He gathered any nails or screws into a cloth bag he hung over his shoulder.

Takagi picked up a hard, plastic leveler used on wood projects. Yay for minimum effort.

I coaxed them out into the hallway where a few of the undead lumbered in the distance in either direction. Tightening my grip, I swung the crowbar down on a section wall. The smacking sound flew down the hall, but those things didn't hear it. And I made sure to send Takagi a gloating smirk.

"Onward, to the infirmary," I said, brandishing my weapon like I was declaring an assault by horseback.

"I thought we were getting out of here, Ishii-san?" Hirano sure was timid.

"We've gotta save Shizuka-sensei and take all the medicine. Plus that's where the next flag is raised."

On route to get sensei, Takagi just had to talk.

"Say, Ishii-san, weren't you the one the teachers were trying to find earlier? You broke a window?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I smashed one of the glass front doors. Why?"

"These things don't seem capable of opening doors, which means you probably help them get in. Nice going."

She had a point.

"Shut up, Takagi-san."

The three of us made our way to the infirmary without much incident.

We opened the door to the sight of Shizuka-sensei brandishing the IV stand I'd used in my past life. On top of all the resurrecting corpses, I think a door moving on its own without making a sound pushed her too far. Tears pooled in her eyes.

"I… I can't take it!"

I released us from the other dimension.

"Shizuka-sensei? It's me, Kazu, your student aide. Everything's okay, we came here to get you."

"Kazu," she said slowly, her eyes regaining their focus, "Kazu-kun! You're alive!" She smiled cheerfully.

Too loud. "Takagi-san, shut the door, but don't lock it. Hirano-kun, help me prop the cots up against the windows to the hallway."

Her twintail hair whipped around as she did as I said. She must have realized arguing with me didn't help much.

The bedframes we shoved against the windows didn't have very high headboards, so they pressed the mattress right up against the glass panes. Rudimentary soundproofing and weak protection, sure, but it'd work until the cavalry arrived.

"Oh, what's in the trash bag," Shizuka-sensei asked.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I kind of raided your medicine supplies earlier. You only had the first aid kit last time; now we have almost all of it."

"Last time?"

Takagi cut me off. "He thinks he's a time traveler who can turn invisible."

Shizuka-sensei poked at her lower lip with an index finger.

"Hmm, that's reasonable."

"Oh, come on," Takagi growled, "you can't believe him too! Did you even go to medical school? Maybe all yours brains seeped down into those monster breasts!"

She recoiled. "B-but you were invisible before. I couldn't see you at all!"

"Checkmate," I said to Takagi, "and if you ever talk to sensei like that again…"

A demure laugh caught us off guard.

"You're all very loud, you know?" Saeko Busujima stood just inside the doorway, fresh blood glistening on her uniform and wooden sword.

"Sorry, Busujima-senpai. We'll be ready in a second," I said as I hefted the plastic bag full of medicine over my shoulder. I probably looked like some kind of knock off Santa. "Need anything else, Shizuka-sensei?"

"Um, my car keys are in the faculty room, but I don't think it can fit all of us," she said, pressing her hands together, "it's a compact."

"There is a television there, right, Marikawa-sensei? We can find out more on this situation and form a plan of action from there," said Busujima.

Shizaka-sensei nodded. "Yeah, a flat screen with all the news channels."

"Then we should go before more of the undead box us in," she said, turning to leave.

"Ah, wait senpai! It would be easier if we could get there unseen. Everyone touch my coat."

Sensei's hand clenched my right shoulder while Hirano held his palm against my back where the bag wasn't covering it and Takagi pushed a finger on the end of a sleeve. Busujima hesitated, the grasped my forearm.

"Shizuka-sensei, mind putting my hood up? With your other hand."

Wavy air surrounded us.

"Thanks, now we can go."

The kendo captain paused a moment to soak it in then firmly gave us our duties. She led the posse from the front, incapacitating zombies by forcing them to the floor. Shizuka-sensei stayed behind the swordswoman. She offered to carry my bad for me, but it really ended up being more dragging than anything. Takagi and I positioned ourselves on either side of her tasked with warding off whatever might stumble out of classrooms or dark corners. Hirano kept a watch on our rear. Something about Busujima-senpai made us all listen to her without question.

We introduced ourselves during the brisk walk. Curiosity got the better of Busujima; keeping her head facing forward, she asked, "What's going on with that coat of yours, Ishii-kun?"

Would telling them mess things up? Eh.

"It's a gift from an extra dimensional being who calls itself Shinigami. I met a certain requirement and now I'm participating in a game it constructed to observe humans."

"So there are more of you," Hirano asked, his voice more confident than before.

"Sure, there's six of us. We're all connected in this weird six degrees of separation thing."

The two radios clipped to my waist went off, creating a stereo effect.

_"Ishii-kun? Are you there?"_

I pressed the talk button. _"Hey Nakaoka-san, thought something happened to you. Things okay?"_

_"Oshiro-san found me. He wanted to test his tennis racket with my flashlight…"_ She sounded embarrassed.

_"Something go wrong?"_

_"A-anything the light from my flashlight touches catches on fire. The tennis racket increases the amount of whatever passes through the frame. We, um, burned down Taiei mall."_

_"Isn't that where you stayed before?"_

_"Yeah. Oshiro-san's family was with him, they're still wrapping their heads around all of it. Did… did you find Kohta-kun?"_

Hirano stumbled a bit behind me and the others stared at me. Of course, they'd been staring the whole conversation, but their faces shifted from confusion to rapt interest. I'd been waiting for this part.

_"He's right behind me. Wanna talk to him?"_ I would definitely pay for that later.

She lost her playful, joking manner. _"Take care of him, Ishii."_

_"I will."_

A pause.

_"So,"_ her voice oozed a teasing nature, _"how did it feel to save Marikawa-san without dying this time? Pretty good, huh?"_

Damn policewoman. I didn't want to see Shizuka-sensei's reaction.

Busujima-senpai stopped at the entrance to the faculty room.

_"Nakaoka-san, I've gotta go. Let me know when you find shelter?"_

_"Sorry, I went too far didn't I."_

_"Maybe. Talk to you later."_

No one said much for various reasons.

Komuro and Miyamoto reacted liked you'd expect someone to during a zombie outbreak when doors opened on their own. They readied their weapons and waited. I anticipated Miyamoto's reaction from how flippant she seemed around school. As soon as the five of us appeared, I already had a hand on her. Her scream hurt my ears, but mine were the only to hear it. She backed away toward the wall.

"Where's Rei," Komuro asked. His bat shook in his hands. He wasn't screaming, that counted for something.

"T-Takashi, I'm right here!"

"Miyamoto-san, calm down. It's okay." I shifted us back with the others.

"Who the hell are you?" Great, another angry person.

"Aside from Busujima-senpai, you should all know my name! We're in the same class!"

"Hey," Komuro interjected, "how did you turn invisible like that?"

Tired. I didn't feel like explaining again. Get them somewhere safe and sleep. Even though it wasn't required in that pocket dimension, I hadn't slept in close to a week.

I dropped the crowbar on a nearby desk and slumped onto a rolling chair, sighing loudly.

The others dispersed. Busujima-senpai and Komuro built a makeshift barricade at the door. Takagi went into the bathroom and came out wearing glasses. Miyamoto's eyes were glued to the television reporting on the outbreak in some other city. Hirano-kun assessed the situation outside and made a comment about using one of the mini-buses to escape. An exasperated smile spread on my face.

Shizuka-sensei rolled a chair up next to me, placing a hand on one of mine that rested on the desk.

"Are you okay, Kazu-kun? You're acting very different," she asked timidly.

"Different like undead are taking over the city and I might be losing my mind?"

"No. Usually you're so reserved and nervous, but today you're acting so cool…"

"I'm already broken. Something like this," I gestured out the window, "fixed me, I guess."

She started to respond when the rest of the group gathered around us.

"We're going to take the mini-bus. You'll be driving, Marikawa-sensei, hope you don't mind," Busujima-senpa said, handing her the keys to bus #1.

"Suppose I have no choice, huh?"

Senpai smiled. "Afraid not."

Before we left, I gave Hirano-kun one of my two radios.

"I don't need two of them."

He stared at me as he took it. "Who's Nakaoka-san?"

"I'll tell you when we get someplace safe, promise."

He nodded.

The empty halls felt extra creepy when you expected them to be filled with animated corpses. We found five people fighting off some undead on a stairwell that led down to the shoe locker room. Once we knew they weren't infected and convinced them to hold hands, I brought them into the other realm. Good thing too. One of the guys in their group had no hand-eye coordination, hitting his metal pole on every imaginable surface on the way downstairs and out the broken door.

It almost felt like cheating, our twelve person team walking to the mini-bus.

Shizuka-sensei unlocked it and sat behind the steering wheel as everyone shuffled down the aisle to take seats. The medicine bag got tossed in one of the front seats.

I pulled off my hood, returning us all to normal.

"Hey, Shizuka-sensei, I've got the ke—"

A shriek echoed in the desolate courtyard, coming from where we'd just exited the school. A half-dozen people ran in a straight line toward the bus. One of them sported short orange hair. Yuuki.

"Sensei, get the bus started. I'm gonna go help them."

"Wait, Kazu-kun—"

I didn't hear the rest, sprinting at the people running toward me. I stopped less than halfway and directed them to get on the bus. Yuuki ignored me as she darted past, nothing new there. A student I didn't recognize twisted his ankle in the run. I thought the teacher next to him, Shido-sensei, whose leg he was holding on to would help him. Instead the man rammed his hard shoe into the kid's face, breaking his glasses into his face. His nose didn't fare well either.

Rage boiled up in me. Shido could have saved him, but he chose to use his student as bait.

I dashed forward yelling out and swinging my crowbar at the skull of a biter. Slurch. That's the closest word to describe a skull caving in and brain matter squeezing out. After the first assault, my anger changed to resolve. With a clear mind, I laid a hand on the moaning guy on the ground and pulled us to the other place. The safe place.

That's when I realized we were surrounded by a mob of zombies so thick I barely made out the white bus plowing through the metal gate and onto the street beyond. They thought I was dead. I hoped they left for that reason, but with Shido on the bus who knew. Even untraceable as I was, with this many undead there was no way out. I'd have to clear a path out dropping bodies, but that'd just attract more from the sound of them hitting the pavement. Carrying the wounded guy on my back would need both my hands and I was afraid even if they couldn't feel us the zombies might scratch a nail or tooth and break skin. If I tried pushing them with the crowbar the ones they bumped into might become more aggressive.

My companion in the final moments moaned again.

"Hey, what's your name?"

He stirred, the blood pooling at his eyes not allowing him to see me.

"Shinichi Kushiro. Are we dead?"

I laughed. No restraint, just a release of all my pent up stress and aggravation in a string of laughter.

"Not yet. I must have some kind of hero complex. Second time I've died saving someone."

"You tried to save me?" He was surprised.

"Yeah."

Our killers shuffled closer, maybe a few seconds before we were buried under a mass of undead.

"What's your name?"

I didn't even think about it.

"Kazu Ishii."

"For what it's worth, Ishii-san, thank you."

That's all I wanted. I closed my eyes waiting for the inevitable.

A noise blared in the distance. Tiny, but I could hear it. Then another in the same direction as the first, but distinctly a separate source. More joined in a horrible chorus growing so loud it drowned out the rasping breath of the zombies. My eyes shot open.

Using my crowbar, I acted as a boulder dividing the flow of shambling undead around Shinichi and I. An ocean of rotten flesh moving as one entity toward car alarms going off on the far side of the parking lot, near the dorms.

Still invisible, I spun, looking for the source of our rescue. There they were.

A group of survivors huddled together about thirty feet away. I recognized Arisawa-sensei and Hayashi-sensei. At the front wielding a slingshot was Okada.

My stomach twisted in a knot. I'd forgotten all about him.


End file.
